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Major Flaws Found In Recent BitTorrent Study

Posted by Soulskill on from the seeding-facts dept.

Caledfwlch writes with a followup to news we discussed a couple days ago about a study that found only 0.3% of torrents to be legal. (A further 11% was described as "ambiguous.") TorrentFreak looked more deeply into the study and found a number of flaws, suggesting that the researchers' data may have been pulled from a bogus tracker. Quoting: "Here's where the researchers make total fools out of themselves. In their answer to the question they refer to a table of the top 10 most seeded torrents. ... the most seeded file was uploaded nearly two years ago (The Incredible Hulk) and has a massive 1,112,628 seeders. The torrent in 10th place is not doing bad either with 277,043 seeds. All false data. We're not sure where these numbers originate from but the best seeded torrent at the moment only has 13,739 seeders; that's 1% of what the study reports. Also, the fact that the release is nearly two years old should have sounded some alarm bells. It appears that the researchers have pulled data from a bogus tracker, and it wouldn't be a big surprise if all the torrents in their top 10 are actually fake." They also take a cursory look at isoHunt, finding that 1.5% of torrent files come from Jamendo alone, "a site that publishes only Creative Commons licensed music."

8 of 167 comments (clear)

  1. Honestly... by Theoboley · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Does this really surprise anyone?

    --
    Stupidity only gets you so far, then you've gotta try
    1. Re:Honestly... by jgagnon · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It probably surprises the people that thought they could get away with presenting bogus data. ;)

      --
      Remember to maintain your supply of /facepalm oil to prevent chafing.
    2. Re:Honestly... by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Problem is, most people who visit this site already know what this article is stating. They knew the study was bogus from the start because they are more in tune with torrents than the people doing the study. The issue arises when the "Recent Study" slamming torrents makes the 6:00 news and it makes a nice segway into how to combat piracy - however this article, showing that the data was incorrect and that they are either embellishing or straight up lieing, will get no mention on mainstream media whatsoever. The people who need to see this news won't see it, and the people who see this news already know. More tragic than ironic.

  2. Imagine that by TheSpoom · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Industry group ending in 'AA' pays to have study conducted that supports their views, doesn't care so much about accuracy.

    News at eleven.

    --
    It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
    - E. Debs
  3. Old content is interesting... by CajunArson · · Score: 4, Insightful

    One major problem with Bit Torrent is that you only get easy access to what is "popular" at any given time. I've gotten some TV show episodes (not available in the US) downloaded in a reasonable amount of time when I start the download within 24 hours of the original show being aired... but try to get the same episode 30 days later and availability drops in a hurry. Despite all the pro-P2P propaganda about how it "democratizes" data, it's really more a mob-rule popularity contest for grabbing the shiniest download.

    --
    AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
    1. Re:Old content is interesting... by MindlessAutomata · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Get on a better site.

    2. Re:Old content is interesting... by JustinRLynn · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's the thing about pure democracy, it is essentially the tyranny of the majority. This means that as a necessary consequence of a purely democratic download system only the most popular is the easiest to download. It's very similar to a free market, in that respect, in that it is exceedingly easy to get say, captain crunch cereal, versus something rarer, like say, unbleached nightshade flower. In a system where nothing is limited you can get anything you want, but it doesn't go hand-in-hand with being able to get whatever you want easily.

  4. Torrents can be both legal and illegal at once by Dalzhim · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Some country's laws may flag a torrent as illegal while other countries consider it as legal.
    As an example, someone could be downloading a copyrighted song for backup purposes while owning a legitimate copy and these fools will automatically classify this kind of download an infringement.